Adrian Dening's Stars Over Somerset

Monday 11th to Sunday 17th July 2022

If you look high up towards the south after dark, have a go at spotting the constellations of Hercules and Lyra.

Just to the right of the "keystone" asterism shape in the middle of Hercules is the Great Globular Cluster of stars, also known as Messier 13. It contains over a million stars and is a great target for binoculars or a small telescope. Binoculars will show it as a round patch of light, where using a telescope will start to reveal the outer stars as tiny pinpoints of light.

The cluster is estimated to be around 22,000 light years away from us.

In 1974, a radio signal that contained information about the human race, our DNA, atomic numbers and Earth's position was beamed from the Arecibo Observatory radio telescope towards M13 as an experiment in contacting potential extraterrestrial civilizations in the cluster. The cluster will move through space during the transit time, so opinions differ as to whether or not M13 will be in a position to receive the message when it arrives in 22,000 year's time!

Of course if any aliens send us a message back, that will take another 22,000 years to reach us!

Closer to home, there are a couple of excellent opportunities to spot the International Space Station if you don't mind staying up into the early hours of the morning. Tuesday 12th at 1.30am and Wednesday 13th at 12.42am. In both cases, the ISS appears in the west and spends 7 minutes passing almost directly overhead, before disappearing towards the east.

M13 Photograph courtesy of Mount Lemmon Sky Centre
Screenshots courtesy of Stellarium
Copyright Adrian Dening and Radio Ninesprings 2022